


First Time Out

by flecksofpoppy



Series: Poppy's Adventures in Night Ficcing [39]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Backstory, Ficlet, M/M, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, Tumblr Prompt, canonverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 07:30:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11573313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flecksofpoppy/pseuds/flecksofpoppy
Summary: On their second expedition, Levi doesn’t understand what it’s like to go out beyond the Walls without a grudge to guide him.





	First Time Out

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a writing meme on tumblr. Anon requested: _“Look at me—just breathe, okay?”_

On their second expedition, Levi doesn’t understand what it’s like to go out beyond the Walls without a grudge to guide him.

He misses the swipe at a Titan’s neck and falls hard into the mud.

Someone dies, his _comrade_ —a word he doesn’t comprehend yet, and in this case, a name he never learned.

He makes up for it by killing five more Titans in as many minutes, but only a few other comrades notice. Half the squad were the fallen soldier’s friend. They wail and mourn; Levi remembers saltwater rain and doesn’t chide them.

When the gates open upon their return, Levi stares at the dirt as he drags his feet, and his horse drags its feet, and the cadets drag the wagon of bodies in, and everything is slow. Everything is dingy water and wet dirt mottled by horse hooves and blood, and Levi feels himself breathing as hard as his horse, weighted and laborious like a beast of burden.

It takes several more expeditions and dragging of feet to notice Erwin at his side, slogging along the same path, wearing the same expression.

And when Levi hears his Commander breathing the same way, he goes to Erwin’s office late in the night with the first words uttered in the privacy of what he sees as a sarcophagus: “Just breathe.”

They inhale stale air together, and Erwin shudders.

His cheekbones under Levi’s palms are sharper than expected.


End file.
